Synopsis

Everyone's happy to see the cows (and all inevitable waste products) depart the ship for a corral planetside. Mal steers River clear of the business by sending her into town with Simon, Inara and Kaylee. Simon's not thrilled, but the closest Alliance presence is a cruiser several hours away, and Mal makes it an order. There's not much shopping to be done, although Kaylee finds a painted plate she thinks might make a good gift for Simon, who she thinks misses the finer things. But Simon's having a bad day, and when he goes on a tear about the town, the captain, the ship and the general suckiness of this lifestyle in general, Kaylee takes it personally. Thus further screwing up Simon's Bad Day, and distracting him long enough for River to go missing. The buyers for the cattle, the Grange brothers, show up, and Mal settles down to some negotiating In town, a lot of law-enforcement types start filing out of building; Simon tries to play it cool as he passes them to go chasing after River. Mal and the buyers reach a deal, but as they hand over the money, the aforementioned law enforcement types jump out, weapons drawn, to arrest the Grange brothers for murder. Trust River -- she's found herself a party, with some pretty damn fine dancing music. She joins the group on the dance floor, whirling and spinning, happier than we've ever seen her, as Simon watches with a smile -- and back at the corral, one of the brothers makes a break for it. Shots are exchanged and people start going down. The smoke clears, River freezes in confused horror, and Mal and Jayne rush to Book, who lies bleeding from a bullet wound in his upper chest. And someone drops a bag over Simon's head, pulling him backwards and away.

Mal and Jayne move Book to the infirmary, where Mal and Zoe start working on him with all their war experience. He's in bad, bad shape; Wash gets sent to the town to find Simon. But the three men we saw earlier are dragging him through the trees; as they knock him to the ground, we're back in the past, as Simon tries to persuade his parents that the letters from River, now at the Academy, are wrong. Her spelling, her word choice -- he's convinced it's a code, and something's badly wrong. But his parents blow him off, sure it's a just a game and everything's fine; Simon should go back to work before his paranoia affects his rising career. In the present, Simon sees River, who has followed them through the trees, and tries to get her to run. But the men follow, grabbing them both. Wash returns with the news of Simon's disappearance, and that people have a habit of disappearing from the town, settlers up in the hills taking them. Mal orders Serenity to lift: "We've already lost two people today. If I can help it, we won't lose a third." Even as Simon tries to reassure his sister that the crew will come for them, they see Serenity leave. Nobody's coming for them, it seems.

Book's condition keeps deteriorating, and Mal and Zoe have done all they can. Inara tells Mal he knows where there are doctors, and it's not on the planet. Mal doesn't want to hear it, but Book is dying. River and Simon's captors herd them into a tiny little town, as Jayne ransacks Simon's stuff for stealable objects, and Kaylee visits Book in the infirmary. She's unhappy about leaving Simon and River behind, but it's too late now -- they're docking with the Alliance cruiser Magellan. And the Tam siblings are being shown their new home -- a hospital full of sick and injured people and only one nurse, Doralee. Simon rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. The Magellan doesn't initially welcome them -- they come aboard armed and demanding papers. Even then, they refuse to treat Book; their facilities are for alliance personnel only. Book weakly tells them to check his ident card -- and suddenly, all the help in the world is available. As Simon works, River sits with a little girl, Ruby, who doesn't speak. Doralee tries to convince Simon that there are worse places to wind up, but he's having none of it. River and her friend eventually slip away, and Simon panics until she returns by herself, bearing an apron full of berries. She's fairly close to sane for the moment, aware of what he gave up to find her, and he reassures her as well as he can. But the moment of closeness ends when River drifts off again, telling Simon and Doralee how Ruby's mother killed her sister and herself. Doralee is thrilled Ruby has started talking, but River looks at her like she's crazy, and says that Ruby doesn't talk. Simon tries to cover, but Doralee is already scared and backing away -- and calling River a witch.

Flashback to an Alliance facility, and Simon's father come to bail him out of jail. He gives Simon hell for risking his career, and his father's reputation, by going into a 'blackout zone' after River, who he's still convinced is fine. He tells Simon this is the last time -- he won't come for him again. Simon is on his own. The bell tolls in the present, as Doralee calls the entire town to witness a witch. The patron begins as the voice of reason -- until River begins talking about how he was in the room alone with the old patron when he died. He knocks her down and proclaims her a witch and a speak of untruths, and the devil to be purged from her with fire. Book wakes up in the infirmary, but isn't giving Mal any answers about why the Alliance treated them so well. Serenity has places to be, and Jayne points out how much easier it'll be without two wanted fugitives on board. Mal and Zoe both know he's right. On the planet, River is bound to a stake as the bonfire is laid. Simon fights his way to her side, and wraps his arms around her, but not even his impassioned words, and the knowledge that they'll have to kill their doctor, are enough to stop them. "Light it," Simon dares them, as River looks up at the sky. "Time to go," she whispers, as the wind kicks up and Serenity lights up the clearing, Jayne standing in the open cargo bay with a rifle trained on the crowd. Mal and Zoe appear from the other end, and order the townspeople to release River, or suffer Jayne's wrath instead of God's. Safe abroad Serenity, Simon thanks Mal for rescuing them, but Mal brushes him off -- "You're on my crew." Book on the road to recovery, Simon and River join the rest of their crew for dinner.

Review

Book has a very 'special' relationship with the Alliance that he has no inclination to comment on.

Otherwise, don't get me started. Like the cows from last week being delivered this week, but that's about it.

Relationships:
None to speak of.

Characters:
I hate, hate, hate when networks decide to air episodes out of production order, because it leaves us with weeks like this when everyone is acting out of character for where they currently should be. If this had been shown as the fourth episode as planned, everyone would be perfect, with appropriate, intriguing levels of hostility and lack of trust. This far in, everyone appears to have been possessed by much pissier versions of themselves for a week; it's confusing at best, irritating as hell at worst.

Simon is cussing up a storm in this ep, in front of Kaylee; if the episode has aired in order, this would have taken place before the infamous "son of a bitch!" in Jaynestown, and screwed up the joke royally. Airing out of order, Simon has apparently been learning to cuss right along with his sister -- not an attractive quality for him to have picked up. He was obviously just having a bad day from start to finish, the chore of caring for River beginning to wear on him. It would have worked really well earlier on, with her reversion to sanity later giving us grounds for the eternal patience we've seen from him in every other episode. Here, it just looks like he reached some boiling point all of a sudden, and went from Snarky!Simon to Bitchy!Simon in one swell foop. Also not attractive, though mildly entertaining. Post-kidnapping, though, he doesn't come off too badly -- he's obviously a doctor bone-deep, since he rolls up his sleeves and gets to work treating patients, no matter how he got to them. And he'd rather die with his sister than let her die alone -- how can you not look at that and want to sniffle? What we learned from the flashbacks, we mostly already knew, but it's nice to see that he and River really were that close, and getting the background on his family's treatment of River's situation explains a lot. No wonder he took off running instead of going home.

I have to wonder how the hell the Tams produced kids with as much spine as Simon (and River, to some extent) have proven to have. They're not bad people, at all; they had a good life, raised two very bright, very happy kids, and generally had a perfect life. But therein lies the problem, since they were so enamored of that perfect life that they refused to see out of it. Rose-colored glasses so thick it blinded them to any possible problems, let them believe Simon was exaggerating because it was easier than believing their daughter could be being abused in the school where they sent her. I can feel sympathy for people like this, but I will never understand them. And when it comes to making Simon feel he can't come to them for help anymore, instead of trying to help him, if nothing else, to prove he's wrong, then I've lost all patience. Denial will only get you so far; then it gets you sitting home alone, wondering where your children have run to, and if they're ever coming home....

And again, getting Sane!River earlier would have made me feel even more sympathy for her during her fits of madness -- not that I didn't, but after this ep, seeing what she's like when she's not screaming and throwing about of things? Massive love for that girl. The psychic angle continues to be played really well, although they blew any chance at subtlety here with her blatantly reading both Ruby and the Patron's minds, but I loved her glance up and the "time to go." She and Simon are very funny together when she's sane, both in the past and the present, and evidently that morbid streak's been around for a long time.

I mostly understand Mal's decision to abandon Simon and River in order to find more reliable help for Book, although he doesn't seem to have had any firm plan for where to go, which means he was taking quite the chance leaving behind a guaranteed source of medical aid to go searching for a hypothetical one. I think it's a decision that would have been easier to understand in episode 4 than episode 7, after Simon has saved both Zoe and Mal (on top of evidently saving Kaylee in the pilot movie, but there were extenuating circumstances); as it is, it makes Mal look a lot less devoted to the well-being of his crew than we know him to be. But he went back for his troublemakers, and his heart must have just about stopped when he saw what was happening to them, so he's forgiven.

Book, has a damn interesting backstory, and I want more of it, darn it. These little teases are just... mean!!!! No one else has much to do, although I was very, very fond of Kaylee for wanting to get Simon the present, and for so obviously hating Mal's decision to leave Simon and River behind. (She doesn't fight hard enough for episode 7, given the snuggling in Jaynestown, but it would have worked for episode 4, so I'm making allowances.) She does need to stop taking other people's bad days personally. Jayne's a thief, but that's nothing new; Inara and Zoe are both as cool as usual; Wash is amusing; I am never, ever, visiting that town. Simon is a better person than I am -- I would have flat refused to do a damn thing. But the Patron made a fun Kleenex villain, and Doralee was interesting, if fundamentally unlikeable -- don't know if it was the writing or the actress, but she was such a wuss! I wanted to shake and/or slap her at at least three different points.

Best Moments:
River's enthusiasm for cannibalism. < g > That was an incredibly cute set of siblings.

River and the cows. Any interaction between her and people other than Simon is always interesting, and Mal is particularly amusing.

The intercuts of River dancing with the shoot-out. Very effective, particularly with River stumbling to a stop as she sees/feel/senses Book getting shot. And way too work in Summer Glau's dance training!

All of his flashbacks, actually; Sean Maher does an awesome job.

Zoe taking care of Book; she's very efficient and funny and generally has a very good bedside manner.

Everyone's jaws dropping when the Alliance ship takes on Book's medical care. < snicker >

River bringing the berries for Simon, and their conversation. The teasing was fun, and River showing that she understands what's going on was heartbreaking. As was Simon's "Everything I have is right here."

Serenity's big entrance. Almost too late, but definitely impressive! Mal surely knows how to make an entrance.

Mal's simple "You're on my crew." As usual, doing the right thing and really praying no one calls him on it.

The dinner party. It would have been very cool and touching if it was the first time we'd seen it (instead of the birthday party being first), but it was still fun, with River cheerfully swiping Jayne's bread, and Simon holding Kaylee's chair.

Questions and Comments:
I don't say this often, but this episode should have been a two-parter. Entirely aside from the character continuity I've already bitched about, the pacing was too fast throughout -- there were things that needed more exploration and didn't get it. I'd love to know how Simon actually broke his sister out, but any other flashbacks would have been cool. The entire 'River's a witch, let's burn her!' thing happened way too fast -- I was left holding Doralee in almost total contempt for being a superstitious wench. The Patron, yeah, I could get it, he had a lot to lose if the townspeople believed River, but the mob frenzy kicked up just way too fast. The Dead Zone did this much better, I'm sorry to say. Also, more of Serenity finding the lost lambs would have been cool... all kinds of ways for this to have been slowed down and expanded, keeping it moving without shoving everything all in, then having to sit on the suitcase to get it closed.

I keep meaning to comment on the new prologue, which I like quite a bit. The dialogue and delivery is a little choppy, but still comes off as being nicely Mal overall. It certainly doesn't make the show sound like something it's not, you know what you're getting into; all of the necessary exposition is covered; and we get some cool shots of the war and the Central Planets. Plus, they cleaned up the major glitch of the original prologue, changing "system" for "galaxy" and tossing in "terraforming" to explain all of these new Earths that all look alike. Given that information, and the knowledge that the Central Planets almost certainly financed all the terraforming, their belief that all the planets they made livable ought to be under their government is a lot more understandable. Naturally, I'm a brown coat and don't agree < g >, but I understand.

It was interesting to see 'Previously on' shots from the pilot that hasn't aired yet. That's kind of unique in my experience, actually. But neat.

Great casting on Young Simon and Young River -- they were physically perfect, the boy had Simon nailed, and the girl was wonderful.

Nice job of beginning to build up the knowledge of technology; "wave" presumably equaling email/page. Slowly, but surely, we're getting a picture of the stuff we haven't seen yet, and it's all cool.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," my ass. This, my children, is why I have a basic distrust of fundamentalists. The original passage was along the lines of "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live" -- as in, someone who went around poisoning wells. Misogynistic/power-hunger/superstitious males 'translated' it to "witch", and those who take their Bible too freaking literally have been using it as an excuse to attack pagans ever since. Grr. It was well-used here, but I have to take the opportunity for this little rant whenever it presents itself. Grrr.

Rating:
3.5 stars out of 5. The rating would have been higher had it aired in order, but the characterization was just too frelled up.